Bee Automobiles excited about British incentives, releases Bee One details
Click on the Bee One for a hi-res version
News of Britain's freshly announced £250 million ($369.4 million) incentive program for plug-in hybrids and electric cars has gotten Bee Automobiles buzzing. They're so excited about the rebate and infrastructure plan that could see the cost of environmentally-friendlier cars reduced by £5,000 ($7,389.02) that they've decided to spill a few beans about their first planned vehicular offering, the Bee One. Designed as a second vehicle for two-car households, the all-electric is a 4-seat, 5-door affair that should offer spritely acceleration and a top speed of 80 mph.
Conceived as an electric from the get-go, the Bee One's batteries should propel it for about 200 miles on a charge and will be exchangeable and, therefore, easily upgradeable. Plans call for the lightweight green car to employ smart-charging technology, which will see it use off-peak and low-carbon sources of electricity to energize itself. The company intends to introduce the car the same year that the incentive program goes into effect, 2011, and are ambitiously targeting an pre-incentive price of a mere £12,000 ($17,733.64).
Gallery: Bee Automobiles Bee One
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[Source: Bee Automobiles]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
polo 7:03PM (4/18/2009)
A 4 door, 5-seater...with 80mpg max speed and a 200mile range....for under $20K??
Isn't this like the holy grail of EVs? Why aren't they planning on releasing it here??
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John 7:25PM (4/18/2009)
looks funky, good specs though, price is great but not sure how realistic that will turn out to be, but none the less the British incentive is very much going to help electrics catch a toe hold. good luck to them, always good to see more competition in the market for electrics!
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Tohe 8:09PM (4/18/2009)
Range is key and 200 miles is really outstanding for 17,733.64 (after incentive). I wish them well, and hope they are thinking of a battery recycling plan from the start.
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jpm 8:58PM (4/18/2009)
"...should propel it for about 200 miles on a charge..."
Don't be fooled by statements like that. The words "should" and "about" don't belong in statements about performance.
PeakOyle 4:46AM (4/19/2009)
The Commodore 64 computer rendering of the car is not very encouraging.
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Faye 9:32AM (4/19/2009)
Hm, this looks like a blatant squared off rip-off of the Pininfarina Bee Zero. Even the name (although Pininfarina had it as b0 and now Bluecar). Still, if the tech is sound then they may have a success on their hands.
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Richard 9:32AM (4/19/2009)
It looks like a clunky version of the Think O =)
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Anthony 9:58AM (4/19/2009)
There is a Factory Toyota Rav4 EV for auction on Ebay.co.uk it`s right hand drive which is very rare.
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Tagbert 7:19PM (4/19/2009)
Looks like a first year design student exercise. Design from the outside in. No consideration for the driver and occupants.
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oldraven 10:04AM (4/20/2009)
Shape aside, my first thoughts when I saw this were, "Maybe the designer likes the Chevy Orlando concept a bit too much."
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